John Berry / The Post-StandardThe snow that fell Wednesday on James Street contributed to Syracuse's winter dropping from the second least snowiest to the third.

Syracuse, NY – Syracuse didn’t get a lot of snow Wednesday, but the 1.5 inches that landed at Hancock International Airport was enough to change the position of winter of 2011-2012 in the record books.

As climate scientists figure it, winter lasts from Dec. 1 through the last day of February.

As it stood at the end of Tuesday, this winter was poised to go into Syracuse’s weather annals as the second-least snowiest since 1950. The 41.2 inches of snow to that point trailed only the 39.4 inches received during the same period of 1982-83, according to the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University.

Wednesday’s addition was enough to drop this winter into third place behind the winter of 2001-2002 and its 42-inch total, the climate center said.

The additional snow also raised February's total snowfall to 11.5 inches, but the month remained the fifth-least-snowiest February since 1950, the climate center said.